Women could bring $17 Trillion into the economy - How to empower them ?
5.6%, is the percentage of women CEOs of the S&P 500. Ginni Rometty CEO of IBM or Meg Whitman CEO of HP represents a minority of women CEOs. According to the 1995 Human Development Report : 70 % of world's poor are Women. Even if this number is discuted, that’s a lot !
Women in the economy today - Injustice
In 2013 the male employment-to-population ratio was at 72.2% vs 47.1% for women. In most countries women earn on average 60 to 75 per cent of men’s wages. Gender differences in laws affect all women around the word, more than a half of the world societies restrict women in job opportunities.
Both in developed and developing economy, women do the caretaking, they have the responsibility of the household. According to unwomen.org, if women were paid as much as man, they could bring $17 Trillion in the economy...no need to make a war to find resources...Women are the next revolution in economy !
Ok but this situation isn’t new so how can we fix/improve it ?
Microfinance, a way to empower women
I know I know, I’m always talking about Microfinance but hear me out : most of non bancarised people, poor people in the world are women and one of the best ways to be independent and to be empowered is to work, either in a company or starting a business.
How to start a business ? First, you need to get a loan , and how do you get a loan without collaterals or without being bancarised ? you make a MICROLOAN ! Here it is again ( it’s a coincidence I promise ;) ).
And that’s what’s happening right now :
Women represent a large portion of world’s microloans and they are good borrowers and good payers so they are a better credit risk for banks !!](https://www.microfinancegateway.org/sites/default/files/mfg-en-paper-women-and-repayment-in-microfinance-mar-2009_0.pdf)
Moreover, women are not likely to spend “in a non-productive, short-term manner."
Muhammad Yunus (the “father of microcredit”) himself through his bank give close to 97% of his loans to poor women.
In fact, according to him
“Microfinance empowerd women by giving them some decision-making power and enhancing their overall socio-economic status”
Microfinance could then lead to a better gender equality !!
Here we are, a solution to empower women of this world, a solution **to resolve the gender inequality, a solution to improve the world wealth. **
Of course there are limits to this solution, women in some situation are not free to spend the loan money as they would like but that's still a tool to achieve this goal.
I’d like to finish this article with an example in Malawi :
Enala Banda a Malawi woman, with less than $2 a day was struggling to feed her family. She did 2 microloans in 2015 with the MicroLoan Foundation and “set up a small business selling tomatoes and fish”
With thoses microloans, her business grew by 300% and today she is starting a new business of shoes selling.
Microfinance is used as a tool to empower women. This way isn’t perfect but it’s a first step to improve gender equality. I’m working on a blockchain based solution to improve microfinance you can find more details in my post here !
Looking at female employment worldwide seems a bit broad to make any conclusions. Now the HDR 2015 is over 500 pages and covers the world. Now there are sections that look at countries, maybe there is something that can be learned there.
Unfortunately the overall numbers are essentially just meaningless talking points. Not to be rude at all, here I have an example, in this same report women and girls account for a larger share of forced labor. This contributes to the poorness numbers, but that isn't something wrong with the West.
Another factor that needs to be analyzed is how was the woman's income calculated, for example if the woman is married and the husband works, did they use the woman's income only? And what is "Poor", because if we compare the poor in the US to the income levels in Mexico or North Africa, well that person in the US is quite wealthy. (which i see the micro financing seems to focus on Africa and that's great)
A lot of information in the article and decent ideas, the challenge is are we trying to fix something that isn't broken? Or do we just perceive it broken, because they aren't us?
Africa needs help for sure, maybe the first step would be to stop dropping bombs on them and orchestrating the assassination of their leaders. Here's what's bugging me, Setup loans that only women can get, honestly that's not a solution that's pretty damn bias. What if a women wants to raise her kids, can her husband apply for the loan since there is a woman to give permission? How about we just help them and not make them agree to a doctrine before we'll help?
Please not to be rude, I just think we have some tough problems that women face on the other side of the world and we're advocating sexually bias financing. The men over there get there arms chopped off, the young boys are kidnapped and sold to sex slavery, hopefully that's enough suffering to allow us to help the men out too.
Sorry for the rant, have a great day CHEERS
Hi mate, first things first, thanks for your comment, that's great to see someone who wants to participate on this kind of subjects.
"maybe the first step would be to stop dropping bombs on them and orchestrating the assassination of their leaders." yes 100% agree you with you.
"HDR 2015 is over 500 pages and covers the world....the overall numbers are essentially just meaningless talking points. " again agree with you. This report is political.
But if you take different sources and compile them the answer is more or less the same all over the world. Gender equality in the world is a reality.
Now, Loans isn't a magical solution to empowered women but it's a tremendous way to do it. With it they can, start a business ( become independent), take care of the household and plenty other things to be independent.
Microloans have some limits for sure and who knows with blockchain technology we might improve it.
Again thanks for your comment and please feel free to answer !
Alan
thanks Alan, really appreciate the feedback, I hope one day we can get back to just helping people regardless of gender, color, religion or politics. God knows we need more people like you willing to help the helpless.
Hi! I am a robot. I just upvoted you! I found similar content that readers might be interested in:
http://www.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/economic-empowerment/facts-and-figures
Seems fair lol